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MN-06: Michele Bachmann, Still a Moran

by: DavidNYC

Wed Feb 18, 2009 at 12:26 AM EST


To paraphrase Mary McCarthy, every word Michele Bachmann utters is moronic, including "and" and "the." Delightfully, Dump Bachmann caught her doing an interview on wingnut radio the other day, and Steve Benen has excerpted the best goodies:

  • ACORN is "under federal indictment for voter fraud," but the stimulus bill nevertheless gives ACORN "$5 billion." (In reality, ACORN is not under federal indictment and isn't mentioned in the stimulus bill at all.)

  • Many members of Congress have "a real aversion to capitalism."

  • the stimulus bill includes a measure to create a "rationing board" for health care, and after the bill becomes law, "your doctor will no longer be able to make your healthcare decisions with you."

  • The recovery package is part of a Democratic conspiracy to "direct" funding away from Republican districts, so Democratic districts can "suck up" all federal funds. Bachmann doesn't think this will work because, as she put it, "We're running out of rich people in this country."

  • The "Community-Organizer-in-Chief" is also orchestrating a conspiracy involving the Census Bureau, which the president will use to redraw congressional lines to keep Democrats in power for up to "40 years." When the host said he was confused, noting that congressional district lines are drawn at the state level, Bachmann said Obama's non-existent plan is an "anti-constitutional move."

God I love Michele Bachmann. The only thing that would have made this interview more perfect would have been some hot anti-light rail fulmination. But I'm sure she'll get right on that next weekend.
DavidNYC :: MN-06: Michele Bachmann, Still a Moran
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MN-06: Michele Bachmann, Still a Moran | 57 comments
anti-constitutional?
my God can we get someone serious in office in Minnesota-06?

Anyone?

Liberty Avenue Politics - a place for politics in Southern Queens

What is the INDC party?
I was looking at results for the MN-06 race and noticed the INDC candidate taking 10% of the vote. Very substantial considering the race was decided by a 3 point margin. Who is this INDC crowd and could they endorse a Democrat next time making a NY style "fusion ticket" or are they spoilers for Republicans? Whatever the case lets hope we can close this race out next time.

Check out Georgia's best progressive political blog
[ Parent ]
They've been a problem
Dean Barkley won 15% in the Senate race on the INDC party line, a similar thing happened in the 3rd district with David Dillon on the INDC line and Erik Paulsen winning with 49% of the vote.

Look at the Governor's races; Tim Pawlenty never won over 50% of the vote. He was elected in 2002 with 44% with Tim Penny running on the INDC line getting 16%, In 2006 Pawlenty won reelected 47%-46% with Peter Hutchinson gettong 6% on the INDC line (We were supposed to win that race)


Liberty Avenue Politics - a place for politics in Southern Queens

[ Parent ]
How annoying
I looked at some of their candidates and minus Barkley who was once a US Senator they seem pretty crazy (MN 6 candidate Bob Anderson says we should cap all spending, etc) and do not raise enough money to ever be competitive. They really just spoil things it looks like but they do not run everywhere and when they don't it seems we do better (Tim Walz in 2006 probably would not have won with an INDC it seems).  

Check out Georgia's best progressive political blog
[ Parent ]
Penny was the only IND legitimate contender here
I'm not sure what the histories of all the candidates were and where there support would go (I'm betting the Paulsen race might not have changed), but I do know that Tim Penny was once a conservative Democrat in the House.  He held MN-01 (Walz's seat) for a term or two.  I'm not sure whether the rest are moderate republicans or what, but I'm fairly certain that the Penny race and, probably Franken, would have gone to us by non-recountable margins.
[ Parent ]
The Independence Party is what keeps Minnesota from being solidly blue
Democrats don't just have to fight Republicans, they have to fight the vote sink that is the Independence Party.
[ Parent ]
Maybe if the shape of the district was changed
MN-06 is an absolutely ridiculous looking district, obviously created with the intention of making it a Republican lock.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi...

I've had a hard time finding out what MN's redistricting policy is (which is shameful, since I live here), but anything's got to be better than that.

[ Parent ]
Same as most states
State legislature draws them, Gov signs it.

Last time, it was a compromise map with DFL with the State Senate, GOP with the House, and Independent Ventura as Gov.

This time, if we win the gubernatorial, that bitch is SCREWED.

[ Parent ]
its was drawn by a nonpartisan
panel of judges because the governor, house and Senate could not come to a compromise. So the Panel drew it pretty fairly. Republicans wanted to make one St. Paul Minneapolis district and dilute the outer parts with the suburbs to make a super Republican map. The Judges made two safely Democratic districts instead, and they made two strongly Republican ones and one lean Republican, one lean Democrat, and two toss up districts. It was actually a remarkable amicable district set up. And MN-06 is hardly attrocious. Look at some of the sphagetti districts in the south, paint splots made to cram every black voter in a region into one district, an abuse of the voting rights act. MN-06 is a very tame cresent curving around the north side suburbs of Minneapolis-St Paul taking in mainly social conservative and heavily catholic areas. MN-04 curves and the takes the southern suburbs, and Democrats split the two cities and Paulson's district is a moderate swing district in between.  

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
I was about to say just that. This is nowhere near egregious.
At least nowhere near the the extent of various "earmuffs" or "dangling by a thread" districts.

Bill Posey is not half-alligator...and is outclassed by Davy Crockett anyway: http://www.washingtonmonthly.c...
[ Parent ]
Dream map
While the current map is hardly egregious--comparable to CO-07, I think, the Democratic dream map would look something like this.  CD-06 would become: The northern half of Ramsey County added in with all of Washington County and the majority of Anoka County. This would not be a pretty map for Michele Bachmann.  MN-02 would take her base in Sherburne and Wright Counties, as well as southwestern Dakota, Scott, Carver, and McLeod.  MN-07 would get Benton County back.  One could alternately axe out Kline, but since he's less of an officious fool, the map above might be best.
[ Parent ]
Especially strange phrasing
considering that she's a lawyer.

Then I looked up her bio, and it turns out she went to law school at Oral Roberts University. So there you go.

[ Parent ]
Time for more references to Symphony of the Night!
Or, particularly, the fan-made flash video Castlevania: Dirge of Inebriation:

Grimmy: Hey, don't be like that.  You have friends--like, that Olrox, or Orlox, or Oral-Lox, or--
Drac: Man, you shut up about that guy.  He's just a mooch.  Big, stupid mooch.  He's all "Drac, you're the king!" and crap.

Bill Posey is not half-alligator...and is outclassed by Davy Crockett anyway: http://www.washingtonmonthly.c...

[ Parent ]
She'd be funnier if she was
not a U.S. Congresswoman.
Her pimping out her children
In a family Christmas letter might still be my favorite, but this is delicious.

Surely the fine residents of MN-06 can't be this kookoo for Coco Puffs.

Wow
This woman should not be in Congress. She should be in a mental hospital.
[ Parent ]
It's a joke. It is funny.
They voted for it twice, sadly enough.  
[ Parent ]
thanks to the independence
party which sucks all these liberal whack jobs that have some sort of "anti-establishment" problem with the Democratic party and have some sort of self-centered pride thinking they accomplishing something by voting for the IP.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
I don't think it's all "liberal whack jobs"
Considering that the Independence Party is definitely and loudly to the right of the DFLers.

I'm sure that there's some of that some of that (see all those self-important Franken haters who were going to cut off their nose to spite their face and vote for Coleman, but the Independence party actually served some good for once there by giving them a sink to though their votes into), but I think it's the ho-hum (but otherwise Dem-leaning) moderates who are doing the real damage here. The kinda people who bitch incessantly about there not being a third party for centrists. The kind of people who were undecided on Obama-McCain until the last week.

No matter who it is, they're not only wasting their vote on at best a pipedream, but they're de facto voting for shitty politicians in who they (and the majority of the state) don't support.

[ Parent ]
Coleman v. Franken
I'm pretty sure I saw polls showing that the Independence Party drew more votes from Franken than it did from Coleman.  So, even there, it hurt us.

I also wouldn't charaterize their voters so much as centrists as anti-establishment.  They strike me as all over the political spectrum; the type of voter who supports Ralph Nader one day and Ron Paul the next.

[ Parent ]
Minnesota third parties
The Farmer-Labor Party pulled the same thing in Minnesota between 1918 and its merger with the Democratic Party in the spring of 1944.  While the Independence Party elected Jesse Ventura Governor, the F-Ls elected three Governors and four US Senators in Minnesots during the 1920s and 1930s.  They also won some US House seats.

Third parties have some tradition in Minnesota and traditionally they have tended to take votes from Democrats enabling Republicans to win with anemic vote totals.  Maybe another merger woulf do the trick and the DFL would become the DFIL or DFLI or something.

[ Parent ]
They most certainly that kookoo for Coco Puffs
Depending on which part of the district.  Half the district is suburban and the other half is exurban.  I'm from the exurban part and they eat this shit up.  Everything about Bachmann, they eat it up.  Very very very socially conservative and pretty ignorant on many issues.  It comes down to guns god and gays with these people.
[ Parent ]
A Moran?
or a moron?
No
Definitely a moran.
[ Parent ]
I am glad
[ Parent ]
Moran
I was accused of being a racist for using the phrase  "what a moroon" on another blog.  The poor woman went on some rant about octaroons, etc before being gently advised to see some Bugs Bunny cartoons.

Isn't it tragic how some people have no appreciation for the classics?

[ Parent ]
Huh?
How is that a derogatory term?  I thought it was a reddish shade of color.
[ Parent ]
Old cartoons
In the old Bugs Bunny cartoons Elmer Fudd and others frequently did these really stupid and ineffective things.  Everytime the scheme would fail Bugs would say "What a maroon."  It was a clear reference to moron.

There is no racist connotation to either "maroon" in the Bugs Bunny sense or in the color sense.  Some people just want to look for it as a convenient put down and a way to avoid looking at any issues.

[ Parent ]
It's truly disturbing
the amount of lies being spread about the stimulus bill.
Sadly
It does appear that she can say anything in that district and get away with it.  It is the same problem with Steve King here in Iowa, pretty much the entire Georgia GOP delegation and some others.  

Please donate to amcharities.org to help build more after school centers in the Miami area.  
Strangely
Bachmann's district only went 53 percent for McCain.  Meanwhile I can't recall Mac Thornberry of the 76-percent McCain district saying anything remotely in this neighborhood.
[ Parent ]
Does she even, like, research stuff?
"The recovery package is part of a Democratic conspiracy to "direct" funding away from Republican districts, so Democratic districts can "suck up" all federal funds."

Sean Quinn over at FiveThirtyEight points out that the average Republican-represented district is actually projected to get more jobs from the stimulus package than the average Democratic-represented district.

It's Unfortunate She's There
Maybe if Minnesota DFLers spent less time making fun of her idiocy and spent more time strategizing on how to get enough votes for her Democratic opponent, we probably would be laughing at these comments with geniune humour. Unfortunately, this is one of 535 people running America, and that's not funny.
Health "Rationng"
I find it funny that Republicans like to evoke the bogeyman of "your doctor will no longer be able to make health care decisions with you" when attacking universal health care.

Since when do doctors make decisions under our current system? Last I checked it was the insurance company that typically gets the final word.  The "rationing board" of Bachmann's paranoid fantasy would at least have the public good in mind, rather than their bottom line.

spellchecker is yer friend
If you're gonna call a moron names, it has more impact if ya speel it right. One of my peeves with blogs is spelling and grammar --ESPECIALLY in headlines. Hurts our cred.

I can't help myself... my mom taught school for a zillion years.

Sadly
You do not appear to be aware of all Internet traditions.
[ Parent ]
Bugs bunny, too
It's an old tradition.  Moran or maroon are well established usages.  Pwned anyone?
[ Parent ]
Here is my promise to you SSP
If this crazy ass bitch is still in office in like 20 years and I clearly have nothing going for me running for office wise, I'll move back to this district and run against her, just for the pure spectacle of a big mouth fag taking on this right-wing homophobic monster.  And there will certainly be a, "bitch please, where does it say that in the bill?" during a debate.

That is my promise to you.

yeah i don't get the moran reference either...
isn't there a democratic congressman named moran whose pretty good?  maybe "what a maroon" would be better.  the independence party has unfortunately become a place for wonky democrats unwilling to dirty themselves enough to seriously run for office to go and get their opinions printed in newspapers and sit on stage and pretend they're in races.  5% is the threshold to be "major party" in MN, so that's the goal they look to achieve and they all slap themselves on the back when they get it.

peter hutchinson was the democrat in 2006 who helped to cost hatch the governor's race.  penny was of course a former democratic congressman who ran in 2002 as an independence candidate.

the 6th district is a mainly exurban district which was the place where ventura performed the best.  oddly the independence party "endorsed" democrat elwyn tinklenberg in 2008, but since the party has no real organization, they forgot to tell anybody.  bob anderson decided to run anyway and won the primary which probably almost nobody voted in.  he was on the ballot.  he had the magical minnesota name of anderson.  conservative voters who were embarassed by bachmann had someplace to go in the 6th district.  and tinklenberg was a lazy campaigner.  ugh.

and now we have to figure out the governor's race in 10.

"Moran" is a reference to an internet picture
of a pro-war protestor holding up a sign that says something like "YOU MORANS, GO USA!"

Bill Posey is not half-alligator...and is outclassed by Davy Crockett anyway: http://www.washingtonmonthly.c...
[ Parent ]
Get it right...
It's:  Get a brain Morans... Go USA!
[ Parent ]
You're thinkign of Jim Moran of Virginia
He's hardly a good congressman.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J...

Here's his biggest gem.

Prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq he told an antiwar audience in Reston, Virginia on March 3, 2003, that "If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this. The leaders of the Jewish community are influential enough that they could change the direction of where this is going, and I think they should."

[ Parent ]
Yeah, that was pretty messed up
And he should be careful. Hes not exactly the most economically liberal Dem congressman (at least on trade). The last thing he needs is a primary fight from a coalition of blue collar voters and Jewish Democrats (whom i believe that district has alot of).
[ Parent ]
And frankly..
I hope it happens. Those kind of bigoted comments are just unacceptable.
[ Parent ]
He was primaried after that remark
[ Parent ]
He's also out of touch ideologically
His voting record is well right of his quite liberal district.  
[ Parent ]
I see
I didnt know that. I should have looked it up first. Its good to hear.
[ Parent ]
Difference between Republican production and Republican flavor
"the stimulus bill includes a measure to create a "rationing board" for health care, and after the bill becomes law, "your doctor will no longer be able to make your healthcare decisions with you.""

This isn't just plain-flavored bat-shit insanity, this is Republican-made ape-shit insanity.

The rest of them are merely Republican-flavored bat-shit insanity.

Bill Posey is not half-alligator...and is outclassed by Davy Crockett anyway: http://www.washingtonmonthly.c...

True
This all very true, but we still can't get her out of there.  I wonder if there are any personally wealthy folks in her district that could take a good run at her.  Maybe money isn't the answer here though.  

Please donate to amcharities.org to help build more after school centers in the Miami area.  
I think, over time...
...there's a distinct possibility that she may "Musgrave" herself. Whereas folks like Jean Schmidt have learned to keep their mouths shut (more or less), Bachmann just can't stop babbling. It may catch up to her over time.
[ Parent ]
I, too, was surprised
to learn that Schmidt had an intelligence score above 5 or so.  (Ooh, burn!)

Bill Posey is not half-alligator...and is outclassed by Davy Crockett anyway: http://www.washingtonmonthly.c...
[ Parent ]
There's always a chance
But she represents the equivalent of El Paso County in Minnesota terms.  CD-6 is the Minnesota Bible Belt.  I think shifting her away from her Sherburne-Wright base might be necessary.  On the other hand, are there any moderate R's who would like to switch and take her on?  Oops, there are actually quite Dem. state house members in CD-6.  I had NO idea the cupboard wasn't bare.  Larry Haws, Tom Tillberry, Gail Kulick Jackson, Jerry Newton, Paul Gardner, Juile Bunn, and Marsha Swails as Reps. and Taryl Clark, Lisa Fobbe, Rick Olseen, Don Betzold, Sandy Rummell, Kathy Saltzman, and Katie Sieben on the Senate end. Clark, Fobbe, and Saltzman represent the most people in CD6 (Haws and Swails have the most in the House) and I've heard alot of talk about Clark being an obvious choice. That's alot of names to be bandying about.
[ Parent ]
Who was El Tinklenberg anyway?


Bill Posey is not half-alligator...and is outclassed by Davy Crockett anyway: http://www.washingtonmonthly.c...
[ Parent ]
Mayor of Blaine (Twin Cities suburb) and Transportation Commissioner under Ventura.

[ Parent ]
What a loon

Bachmann
My favorite memory of her is that State of the Union where she acted like she had a schoolgirl crush on George W. Bush. Id be pissed if i were her husband. I mean cmon.
I love it...
the more she opens her mouth, the more the GOP loses...
MN-06: Michele Bachmann, Still a Moran | 57 comments

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